There have been a lot of movies about World War II since memorial times but there are very few of them that focus on subjects that happened behind all the combat. Fury already took us to experience what it is like to actually live a war with all its cruelty from the eyes of the soldiers. This is why we normally tag them as the only heroes but The Imitation Game is a movie that tells us one of the greatest secrets in history of how Alan Turing was one of the most important men during the war but why his story had to be kept as secret. It’s a movie about the incredibly touching story of Alan’s personal and professional life as he had to face the importance of keeping secrets in order to help himself and others.
Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) was a mathematician who lived at the peak of the Nazi’s era and was hired to try to decipher the German’s code so that England could end the war faster. They had this German machine called Enigma that received the codes every day at dawn but every midnight the code was reset, so they had to start working from scratch all over again the next day. Alan believed something else was needed, a machine that could act and think faster than humans. His only problem is that he is socially awkward so his colleagues don’t trust him on his new machine, therefore, he has to try and get their empathy if he wants to make that machine work.
Everything that makes this movie highlight is mainly due to Cumberbatch. He is quite an actor and he demonstrates it in every single one of this scenes. Alan is an arrogant and lonely mathematician that believes everyone is slowing him down. It sounds like someone that would be hated by everyone, but, instead, Benedict does a great job at portraying him so good the audience can’t help but to grow fond of him. As the story progresses his boss isn’t happy with the results and are planning to shut down his machine and to see how Benedict reacts to that is something touching and eye-catching.
Keira Knightley also proofs once again her respectable talent. Her character has to face the awkwardness of working surrounded by men and her role as Alan’s most trusted colleague and friend is very mature and charming. The rest of the cast also perform a quite amazing job. The transition from the nuisance of having to work with Alan to respecting him and believing in his work feels so natural.
The team makes up a great brotherhood as they keep failing together day after day for a whole year and going to bars at night to relieve their stress. It’s in one of these moments when, after what started as a funny moment, ends up being the best clue to solving the puzzle. It’s one of the greatest points in the screenplay due to the fact that one can’t help but to feel the same emotion of finding the key where nobody would expect to find it as them. The reason why Alan Turing and his work was kept in secret for so long is addressed in such an immersive way full of emotions and excitement. The movie ends with a “bang” not only due to Alan’s life but with a powerful message about how computers, as we know them today, had a much deeper history than anyone would thought.
2014 was a great year for science in movies. We’ve had Interstellar, The Theory of Everything and now The Imitation Game. The first one just won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and the other two films were nominated for Best Picture and Best Actor. Trust me when I tell you The Imitation Game’s nominations is very justified. The story of World War II has been addressed many times in the big screen already but this production takes a much deeper path with a story about heroes nobody knew about until recently. Surely everybody will grow fond of Alan Turing after witnessing his great accomplishments and how he had to live a sad life after the events of the war. Hail Cumberbatch for that great performance.
Rating: 9/10 stars
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